Dr Mahendra Sethi is an urban environment expert exploring the role of cities at the interface of global changes and currently leads an urban sustainability group at the Indian Society of Applied Research & Development. He is a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Technical University Berlin, Germany, United Nations University (UNU-IAS) PhD Fellowship at UNU-IAS and Visiting Scholarship at Kyoto University in Japan. He bears interest in the built environment, megacities, policy and governance, pandemic resilience, environmental planning, optimisation models, green technologies and responsible development in ecologically sensitive areas. Over the years, Dr Sethi has published over 40 peer-reviewed research papers, books/ book chapters, policy articles and project reports with renowned publishers, including Nature, PLoS ONE, Routledge, WSP, Springer, ERL, Elsevier, etc. He has been a guest faculty at premier institutions including IGES, Sophia University, Meiji Gakuin University, TERI School of Advanced Studies, Freie University, Himachal Institute of Public Administration, School of Planning & Architecture Delhi, Jamia Millia Islamia Central University and been offered Government of India’s GATE Scholarship (2005-07) and Liverpool University Scholarship (2005).